2011 USDDN Southwest Nationals

Our regional USDDN competition was this past weekend. The weather was almost perfect. around 80 for a high with moderate wind. The divisions are Super Open (freestyle + toss and catch) and Super Pro (toss/fetch). It’s a qualifier for the International finals in Georgia. The top 5 in each division qualifies.

Super Open (freestyle + toss/fetch):

Every year Enzo has competed in the Super Open division, he has qualified and this year was no different. He earned a 4th place finish. The first round for us was pretty rough, having a bad routine per Enzo’s standards. We had the highest toss/fetch score in the division at 19.5. Enzo’s second freestyle round was awesome and we finished 4th overall!

On Enzo’s next to last T/F throw, he caught a disc at 40 yards and was under 10 seconds left. That’s nearly impossible to get the disc back and get another throw off. I was calling him back as best as I could and he sprinted to me. He dropped the disc right in front of me and I picked it up with 1 second left and threw another 40 yard bomb for a beautiful catch. The disc wasn’t in my hand for even a half second. That was exciting! Although certainly not the highest score I’ve had with Enzo , I told Jenn after the round it was the best communication and flow I’ve ever had with him in T/F. It was a thing of beauty.

Tooney didn’t compete in Super Open this year because it was too much for her to do with all the rounds that would have been required. Enzo had 5 rounds. I felt she’d be better suited to just do the Super Pro division, figuring she had a chance to win it.

Super Pro (toss/fetch only):

Enzo had 2 solid rounds, but I wasn’t throwing my best for him.

Tooney, as usual, was great in her 2.5 rounds of t/f. She had a .5 round because there was a timer malfunction so we had to redo our round. It turned out good because I ended up with a better score the 2nd time, although Tooney was more tired and I only got 5 throws for the redo. She caught all of them, though, for 19 points. It put her in 3rd place after the 1st round. The 2nd real round was really good because I got 6 throws off for 20 points. Tooney was running really fast and looked beautiful out there. We have some videos that will be put up some time. Freestyle may be more exciting to watch, but when you see a toss/fetch round with a dog like Tooney it’s really worth watching. Tooney scored 39 points in her 2 rounds and finished 2nd place with another qualifier!